Poll The ME/CFS/FM Parking Pass Poll: Are you leery of getting one or using it if you have one?

The Invisible Disabilities Parking Pass Poll

  • I have a disabilities parking pass - I use it - no problem!

    Votes: 15 36.6%
  • I have a disabilities parking pass - I use it regularly - cringing a bit

    Votes: 10 24.4%
  • I have a disabilities parking pass: I use but there are times I don't use it when I know I should

    Votes: 4 9.8%
  • I have a disabilities parking pass biut I rarely use it - I'm worried people will think I'm faking

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I know a disabilities parking pass would help but I'm leery of getting one

    Votes: 12 29.3%

  • Total voters
    41

Cort

Founder of Health Rising and Phoenix Rising
Staff member
Hey Invisible disabilities can be tough. A disability parking pass can be a great help for people with ME/CFS, FM or chronic pain but since your disability is often largely invisible you might run into the situation where someone believes you're faking... That would not be pleasant.

When someone with the airlines contested my healthy looking ex-girlfriend she pulled up her shirt to reveal scars running up and down her back from failed back operations. She was livid!

How are you about disability parking passes? Love em - use them with no problem? Or concerned an ugly situation might develop? Let us know...

Canary in a Coal Mine posted this on Facebook:

An ME patient explains why she barely uses her disabled parking pass:

"Thanks so much for bringing attention to the issues people with invisible illness face regarding handicapped parking. I have Fibro and ME and can only walk short distances, so I have a permit. I've had it for nearly a year but only used it a couple of times because I'm so afraid of people judging me. Each time I have used it I've gotten stares - I know I should ignore it, but I can't.

I have to park close, but I won't use a handicapped spot even if I need to. This means I avoid shopping centres, supermarkets, the city and other places where finding a park close to the door is hard. I didn't even want to like or comment on the post because I don't want my friends to know I have a permit - I don't think they'd understand. I'm in constant pain and can only stand or walk for about 20 minutes maximum."


And another story

Mom's Open Letter To Handicap Parking Shamer Reminds Us That 'Ghost Illnesses' Deserve Respect
Meagan MorrisApril 14, 2015

c9ae601ba2bc67a8309078f1c7dd34184b89bd6f.jpg

Harley Jo Skorpenske, who has Lupus, found this note on her car windshield in a CVS parking lot.(Photo: Corinna Skorpenske / Facebook)
One Ohio State University student’s quick trip to a Cleveland, Ohio, CVS prompted her outraged mother to post an open letter on Facebook appealing for people to understand that just because an illness isn’t visible doesn’t mean it’s not there.
“You should be ashamed!” read the note tucked onto Harley Jo Skorpenske’s windshield. “When you take a handicap spot an actual disabled person suffers. You were not raised as you should have been.”​
The issue wasn’t that Harley didn’t have a handicap parking sticker — she did — but that the person who wrote the note didn’t believe she had a disability because of her ability to walk in and out of the store unassisted.

However, what wasn’t visible was the 20-year-old’s intense battle with Lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that at least 1.5 million people in the United States battle on a daily basis,according to the Lupus Foundation of America.

In response Harley’s mother, Corinna Skorpenske, wrote the letter and posted it, along with a photo of the scribbled note, on Facebook.

“To The Person Who Left This on My Daughters Car,
Wishing so much for you to have stopped and talked to this amazing person before leaving this. If you had, you would have known that my daughter has a disease. Since she was 16 years old, she has been suffering from LUPUS. Basically, her immune system thinks her body inside and out is something bad and attacks it. It started with her joints swelling and the pain being so bad she could hardly walk. But she continued going to school and keeping up with her community service.”​

Corinna goes on to describe the intense challenges and pain her daughter has faced over the years since her diagnosis, including hearing loss, multiple collapsed lungs and constant pain, along with a month-long hospital stay that forced her to drop out of college for a semester.
 
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San Diego

Well-Known Member
I have a parking pass, but have found that I rarely use it for three reasons:

1. I rarely leave my home

2. If I do, I've learned to go to small shops near my home at about 8:30 pm on Monday - no traffic, no lines, and front row parking is readily available. Another benefit of going late on Monday is that I can get help from shopkeepers. I've sometimes handed them my list and sat while they helped me.

3. Stubborn pride :D (and a little fear of shaming incidents)
 

Cort

Founder of Health Rising and Phoenix Rising
Staff member
:)
I have a parking pass, but have found that I rarely use it for three reasons:

1. I rarely leave my home

2. If I do, I've learned to go to small shops near my home at about 8:30 pm on Monday - no traffic, no lines, and front row parking is readily available. Another benefit of going late on Monday is that I can get help from shopkeepers. I've sometimes handed them my list and sat while they helped me.

3. Stubborn pride :D (and a little fear of shaming incidents)
 

Merry

Well-Known Member
When I requested a disability parking pass from a doctor (the last one I saw, seven or eight years ago), he said, "What makes you think you need one?" I had already told him at the first appointment months earlier of my CFS diagnosis by other doctors, but I explained to him how limited my energy is, how hard shopping is. He stared at me coldly and ended the appointment. No disability pass. That was the last time I saw him.
 

Cort

Founder of Health Rising and Phoenix Rising
Staff member
When I requested a disability parking pass from a doctor (the last one I saw, seven or eight years ago), he said, "What makes you think you need one?" I had already told him at the first appointment months earlier of my CFS diagnosis by other doctors, but I explained to him how limited my energy is, how hard shopping is. He stared at me coldly and ended the appointment. No disability pass. That was the last time I saw him.
Ouch!
 

dandy1day

New Member
At first I got a limited time parking pass because I thought I was in a big crash, and I figured that if I was using a wheel chair it would be legit. However, I haven't ever fully recovered from the "big crash" and got a permanent pass. It does help me get out a bit more, although I'm home most of the time. Each step makes a difference when walking through a too hot or too cold parking lot. Anyway, I love my pass, feel a bit sheepish sometimes, but am so very glad to have it. Most people don't seem to be put out, but some look a bit surprised when I just walk in the store without any obvious signs of disability. The convenience and reduced walking time is worth it though.
 

Cass

New Member
there's no way i could not have a disability placard for my car. one time i got followed from my car into my apt elevator by a man who then decided to yell at me about "scamming the government."
 

San Diego

Well-Known Member
there's no way i could not have a disability placard for my car. one time i got followed from my car into my apt elevator by a man who then decided to yell at me about "scamming the government."
There are so many stories about this sort of thing now. And you never know when your picture will be the next one plastered across social media as an example of "scamming the government". Sigh

Hopefully between the IOM report on ME/CFS and the LymeChallenge, we'll get some education out there.
 

Cort

Founder of Health Rising and Phoenix Rising
Staff member
there's no way i could not have a disability placard for my car. one time i got followed from my car into my apt elevator by a man who then decided to yell at me about "scamming the government."
Who do these people think they are?
 

Diana Maus

Member
I asked for a parking pass after I almost passed out trying to get to my car in the heat one summer. It's very hot where I live. I use it all the time now and it has made a huge difference in energy for me to go to the grocery store regularly. It's also made it possible for me to go to events at our fairgrounds. Before, I was unable to withstand the walk from the giant parking lot over unstable ground. I don't care what anyone thinks about my using it. No one knows what to like to have to monitor your energy use every single day. Using the pass has helped my sciatica too, so if that's all the medical profession can do to help me I'll take it. (I don't take any pain mess for CFS/fibro.)
 

Who Me?

Well-Known Member
I have one for people who drive me places. I can't lug across a parking lot. I only use it if there isn't a space near the door.

Screw everyone else. We owe people nothing.
 

Angie

Member
I use my parking permit freely and without shame. On days when I'm feeling fairly good and I know there isn't much walking to do, I'll park in a normal spot, giving someone who is less mobile than me a chance to use it. I do make an effort to avoid the extra wide handi parking spots out of deference to those who need to room to load passengers into wheel chairs or room for walkers. Now my wheel chair is a whole other story. I have only used it a few times and am afraid to deal with people who may judge when the see me getting out of it looking strong and healthy, not that's it happened yet.
 

Cort

Founder of Health Rising and Phoenix Rising
Staff member
I use my parking permit freely and without shame. On days when I'm feeling fairly good and I know there isn't much walking to do, I'll park in a normal spot, giving someone who is less mobile than me a chance to use it. I do make an effort to avoid the extra wide handi parking spots out of deference to those who need to room to load passengers into wheel chairs or room for walkers. Now my wheel chair is a whole other story. I have only used it a few times and am afraid to deal with people who may judge when the see me getting out of it looking strong and healthy, not that's it happened yet.
I hope you don't have to use the chair much, Angie and if you do I hope it goes well.
 

Nina

Member
I use mine whenever I am out. No problem. I gotta have it. I can barely get into the store and back out without visions of leaving on a stretcher. I've never even thought about what others may think. I am disabled. What part of that is ENabled?
 

Seeksassy

Active Member
Have had mine for only a short time, and only use it when I really need it....should probably use it more. My worry hasn't been being accosted and accused but I feel more like I'm labelling myself. I suppose I'll get used to the idea of having reached the point of needing it, but I'm not there yet.
 

Cort

Founder of Health Rising and Phoenix Rising
Staff member
I use mine whenever I am out. No problem. I gotta have it. I can barely get into the store and back out without visions of leaving on a stretcher. I've never even thought about what others may think. I am disabled. What part of that is ENabled?
Love your signature, Nina - is that from "Forever Young"? (big Bob Dylan fan :))
 

Angie

Member
I hope you don't have to use the chair much, Angie and if you do I hope it goes well.
No, it's rare, but mostly because I'm stubbornly proud. I save it for the super large box stores where you have to walk half a km to get from one side to the other.
 

Folk

Well-Known Member
I fit another option: I don't have it and I use it :)
haha
I don't even know how to get one. But I use the parking spot anyway.
 

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